Gauntt1

Alexandria Gauntt
English 1020
Elizabeth Kent
8 March 2016
Outline
I)

II)

Working Title: Diversity in Danger: Endangered Languages

a) This title is somewhat tied into the topic because I will be discussing how culture
and diversity is compromised as languages become endangered or extinct.
Introduction:
a. I want to gradually introduce the readers to the idea and concept of endangered or
extinct languages since many people have heard, but have not listened when this

III)

topic comes up.

Working Thesis:
a) In this paper I want to explain to my readers how endangered languages affect our
culture and diversity and what ways can use to prevent languages from becoming
endangered or extinct. Basically I want to inform my readers how dangerous it is
to our societys diversity to let this ongoing problem persist and what ways we

IV)

can prevent it.

Entry 1: Letter
a. In this part of my project I want to introduce my paper with a letter, whether to an
important person or just a regular individual. I will be introducing the actual topic
of endangered or extinct languages and the dangers they present towards us.
Because even though this is a topic that most everyone has heard, no one really
knows what it really is about. So that will be the mission of this first entry; to

V)

inform my readers.
Entry 2: Short Story

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a. I know that for this part I will be talking about a specific language that has already
died out. I will be giving a summary about the languages history, culture, and the
VI)

last speaker of this language.

Entry 3:Timeline
a. Basically I will give a timeline of extinct and endangered languages and try to
coincide it with any points of major historical interest that would either cause or

VII)

be affected by the extinction or endangerment of these languages.

Entry 4: Survey
a. If I do the survey what I will do is out of 20 extinct languages I will place 5 wellknown languages and then 15 will be languages that have died out and see how
many people will actually recognize or have heard of these languages. This survey
will represent how little our society knows about the languages. I also want to
include a statement at the back of these surveys, all of them different, that briefly
shows or explains how extinct languages affect our history and culture.

VIII)

Entry 5: Obituary
a. In this obituary I will be picking a specific language that has died out and give
background information about it. This part will be used to give readers more

IX)

insider information about extinct languages.

Entry 6: Certificate (of Death) or (most endangered languages)
a. Like the one above, I plan to do the same but whether with many endangered
languages or one is the question. If I choose to do the many languages then I will

X)

have to pick a time period.

Entry 7: Invitation (to readers (or someone important) to help me and others
a. With the invitation I want to invite the readers or a specific person to come help
me inform the world or the dangers of extinct and endangered languages and

XI)

ways that we can prevent it.

Concluding Strategy:
I do not know what to do for this. Maybe I want to end it by reiterating the last entry and
explain why we cannot allow languages to die out.

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XII)

Annotated Bibliography

Baghbidi, Hassan Rezai. "The Zargari Language: An Endangered European Romani In

Iran." Romani Studies 13.2 (2003): 123-148. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Feb.
2016.
The article discusses a language called the Zargari language, also known as Romno by its
speakers. The article introduces the language to its readers with some of the background
information about the language. This information includes the origin and how the language came
to be and the history of it. Next, the article gives the phonology, morphology, syntax, and
lexicon. The phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon are separated into little sections that
teach adverbs, purpose clauses, and much more. The purpose for this source is to give an
example of an endangered or extinct language. To show the readers what we risk losing if we
continue to let these indigenous languages to become extinct. Sadly, once I evaluated this source
it became clear to me that it would be close to impossible to implement much of this into my
actual paper. Unless I plan to actually show and teach my readers some of the words and parts of
speech for this language then there really isnt much of anything in this article that I can use. The
only part of this that I can use are the first three pages so that I can introduce the language and
explain what it is and where it originates but, it would mainly be used as one of the many
examples of an endangered language. Therefore, the paper has many weaknesses when using this
as a story of a language being extinct. If I were to decide to teach my readers the language then it
would come in handy, but my objective for this article was to have a story about the extinction or
near extinction of a language.

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Binion, Sydneyann, and David Shook. "Endangered Languages." World Literature Today 81.5
(2007): 12-14. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
This source contains many different articles that explain or talk about why the prevention of
endangered or extinct languages is important to our world and how this would affect our
community, culture, and the diversity of the world. There are also several articles that contain a
story written in an endangered language and under that story is a short description or background
on that specific language. After evaluating this article, I have come to the conclusion that this is
perfect for my research paper. The content of this article will help me give my readers the much
needed information on why languages being endangered affects us as a community and why they
are so important. It explains with several different reasons and details why we as a community
need to prevent languages from becoming extinct or endangered. There are even some examples
of some playwrights written in languages that are endangered. The only weakness of this article
that I have found is that there is not enough information provided, which causes me as the writer
to continue in search of more information pertaining to this specific topic. Including the fact that
the stories and background information do little to help me add or improve my paper. The
purpose of this source will fuel majority of my paper and discussion. This article will be the
backbone of why it is so important that we as a community need to prevent languages from
becoming extinct or endangered and what affects an endangered or extinct language has on our
world.
Bradley, David. "Language Reclamation Strategies." Linguistics Of The Tibeto-Burman
Area 38.2 (2015): 166-186. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Print.
This book introduces ways that we as a community can use to reclaim lost or dying languages.
They also discuss the problems that may arise as we use these solutions. This book would be

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most likely used for the last entry, but at the same time I feel as if I should not use this source
especially since it states that there are problems with the methods they use to reclaim these
languages. I know that not every method that is created is full proof there are many other
methods I have come across in which they do not have problems at all. So, this book wont be
incorporated into my information as much as my other sources even so this is still something that
I can use to a certain degree and this is also a reliable source compared to others that I have
obtained. I believe that I will present it in the invitation as a way to show that even though
preserving languages seem like an easy task they are really not.

Cameron, D. "Language: Diversity In Danger." Critical Quarterly 44.4 (2002): 135139. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This article discusses language endangerment and how as language becomes endangered
diversity takes a down turn. It begins with explaining how as the twenty-first century continues
endangered language becomes a more popular topic. Then it begins to transition into examples
that show how indigenous languages have increasingly grown smaller as time goes on such as,
the colonization of other countries. It goes on to explain what the author and others believe to be
the reason as to why hundreds of languages have become extinct or endangered. Asking why all
of this matters, the author begins to explain that there is a disadvantage with the extinction of all
the indigenous languages. One disadvantage being that we will base our accounts of human
language on these few existing languages while the other states that by losing these languages we
also lose the cultural aspect and wisdom that came with this language. The content of this source
is important because it gives the paper a strong foundation and an exceptional start off. This
source has many strengths in concern of information on increasing smaller indigenous languages,

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but the sources main weakness is that much of the claims stated are no more than opinions that I
cannot use to completely sound proof some of my arguments. As for the purpose of this source,
that will be to give my paper a starting foundation. A lot of what was written at the beginning of
the source had plenty of information that could start my paper and give readers more of an
insight into endangered or extinct languages.

Endangered Languages, UNESCO. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2016

This website is basically list a lot of facts about endangered languages that can be very helpful
with the first entry but otherwise it has no use. So the helpfulness of this website is very limited.
I want to say that it is a very useful website but I really can only use it in the first entry since that
is when I introduce to the reader or readers about the concept and dangers of endangered
languages. The website does have an individual page that consist of projects that have been
conducted in order to study and archive language that are dying out, but I feel as if the
information presented by this website does not meet the criteria I have set up for that area of
information. Really there is not much information on this website that I can go off that would be
not give me a difficult time to implement into my information. The way that they present their
information and the fact that they have so little makes this website very insufficient for me to
use.

Maffi, Luisa. "Endangered Languages, Endangered Knowledge." International Social Science

Journal 54.173 (2002): 385-393. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
This article is mainly about organizations and linguists that have brought awareness and light to
the seriousness of endangered languages. These groups and people have gathered information

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while at the same time promoted the salvage of these endangered languages. The article is more
about what grants these groups and people have received and why and what research allowed
them to receive such a great honor. Once evaluating this article, it came to me that again I had
chosen a source that would not really put a major contribution towards the final product of my
paper. I can try to use this article to branch off and find more information on these groups so that
I can report on the methods they use in order to preserve and salvage these endangered languages
but, that part of my paper is not a major part in my paper. As far as that little section of my paper
it still doesnt rank high in being a proper source. The article talks more about the groups and
people receiving grants than anything else. This articles strength is that it can help me branch off
and guide me on what I need to search in that area but, it weakness is that the relevancy of the
paper is very weak. Also the paper provides a background on some of the organizations and
people so that I know which ones are more credible for my paper. The purpose for this paper is to
help me find credible organizations that have proven methods to preserve and salvage
endangered or extinct languages.

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Perley, Bernard C. "Zombie Linguistics: Experts, Endangered Languages And The Curse Of
Undead Voices." Anthropological Forum 22.2 (2012): 133-149. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
This article discusses what methods linguists have used to preserve endangered languages and
why those methods are flawed. It explains why some of the methods are fundamentally incorrect
and what are some steps we can take that will help the preservation of these languages. It also
talks about how we as a community do not completely comprehend endangered language and its
aspects while critically evaluating metaphors that linguists use. At the end, the article identifies
key methods that are used by language activists that ignore current metaphors to create more new
solutions to extinct or endangered languages. Once evaluating this article, it became clear that
there was some use of this article, but not that much. This article could help fuel my discussion
on what ways we can use to preserve endangered languages and how effective these methods are,
but there is very little information on this topic. The weakness for this paper is that I feel like
since it is coming more from the authors perspective the article will be more biased then a paper
that was simply based on facts that are presented to readers including the fact that it really does
not have much information in it to support my statement. This paper goes towards more of a side
then just a general view. While much of the authors statements have evidence, backing them up
there is still much left to be desired. The purpose of this source in my paper would to be fuel or
be the backbone of my argument for which methods would be the best to preserve or pull
languages out of endangerment.

Simpson, A.J. Listverse. Listverse Ltd, July 17, 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

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This is a website that gives ten languages that we have lost and a brief background of each.
While there isnt much in this article it will be a tremendous help concerning two of my entries.
The ten languages shown in this article are not well known so it will be easy to incorporate this
into my survey. I could also use this to pick a language for my obituary and so into more research
for this language. So this article is very helpful to give me a starting point for one of my papers
and to provide me with more less commonly known languages that I can input into my survey.
Also at the bottom in the comments there were many people who speak languages that are dying
out that spoke of reasons they believe parents dont teach their children their second languages
and why they should do it or not. There was even one comment that presented an excellent way
to preserve dying languages into children.

The Endangered Language Fund. The Endangered Language Fund. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
This website is a page that an organization has set up in order to raise funds for endangered
languages. It was founded in 1996 in order to maintain and preserve languages. There is little to
no information on this website that I can use. The website itself does not really have much
information on there to start with, which in would make it very useless if it wasnt for the fact
that on one page they have links that lead to books that are about endangered languages and
ways to preserve them. So while this website has very little use it is a great place to branch off
into other areas that have plenty of information. This website has more than just links to books, it
also has many links to other relevant sources that can also help me branch and sort through
valuable information concerning my entries and topic.

The Endangered Languages Project. Alliance for Linguistic Diversity. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

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This website is basically a website that helps inform others of the dangers of dying languages in
concern of our diversity as a community and ways that we can prevent this ongoing problem.
There are several links that lead you in different directions that can help me or others explore
awareness of the situation and ways that they have created to preserve our diversity through
language. This website is extremely helpful for my invitation and the first entry. Because the first
entry will be a letter to someone and the purpose for this letter is to basically inform the reader or
readers of endangered and extinct languages this would be a prefect resource to go off of. While
in the invitation I will be introducing the readers to ways that our community has created to
preserve and revitalize dying languages. So this website is very helpful especially since it is a
worldwide project so there should be statistics that can help me.